New Battle Angel Alita/Gunnm Manga is Lauching in October

In 2014, 20th issue of Kodansha’s Evening Magazine is announcing that Yukito Kishiro will release his Gunnm: Kasei Senki or most known by Battle Angel Alita: The Martian War Chronicles manga series in October 28. Kishiro had already revealed in January that he would start a new Gunnm manga series in the second half of 2014. He ended his Battle Ange Alita: Last Order manga series on January 28.

Battle Angel Alita tells the story of Alita (“Gally” in the original Japanese version), an amnesiac female cyborg. Her intact head and chest, in suspended animation, are found by cybermedic expert Daisuke Ido in the local dump. Ido manages to revive her, and finding she has lost her memory, names her Alita after his deceased cat. The rebuilt Alita soon discovers that she remembers the legendary martial artPanzer Kunst, although she does not recall anything else. Alita uses her Panzer Kunst to first become a mercenary Hunter-Warrior, killing cyborg criminals in the Scrapyard, and then as a player in the brutal sport of Motorball. While in combat, Alita awakens memories of her earlier life on Mars. She becomes involved with the floating city of Tiphares as one of their agents, and is sent to hunt criminals down. Foremost is the mad genius Desty Nova, who clashes with Alita before becoming her ally. [quoted from wikipedia]

A great curiosity about Battle Angel Alita is that Director James Cameron has rights to the film adaptation of Battle Angel. Cameron is said to be a big fan of the manga, and he was waiting until CGI technology was sufficiently advanced to make a live-action 3D film with effects comparable to Avatar. However, he is working on Avatar sequels before starting Alita. On April 18, 2012, Cameron confirmed that Battle Angel is a low priority for him right now, and he doesn’t know when he’ll get to it.